A History of Agriculture in India v1.c25.s3.28

v1.c25.s3.28

Sheep and Goats. Dogs were used for guarding houses and for boar-hunting, and they got driven away from the sacrifices, but there is no direct evidence of their use in herding, which seems to have been carried out by a herdsman armed with an ox-goad. The flocks included both sheep and goats, kept for their wool as much as for their flesh. The Sanskrit word for a sheep is used by transference for wool, and no doubt sheep's wool was mainly used, but there is evidence that goat's wool was also used, presumably from such long-haired animals as those of Kashmir. The wool, when spun, was woven, probably by women, on a loom of which the names of warp, woof, and shuttle are preserved.⁸